WND EXCLUSIVE

Congressman looking at Sheriff Joe's probe

Says it's reasonable to listen to what results say

A Congressman who told a town hall meeting recently that he questions whether Barack Obama’s birth certificate is legitimate now has confirmed he’s watching Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigation into the president’s eligibility.

It was at a Feb. 25 town hall meeting that Rep. Clifford Stearns, R-Fla., told constituents, “All I can tell you is that the general consensus is that he has produced a birth certificate. The question is, is it legitimate?”

Now in a report in Roll Call, Stearns has doubled down on the issue, revealing that he is “looking at all the evidence” that has been uncovered by Arpaio.

The sheriff’s volunteer Cold Case Posse of professional law enforcement officers has spent more than six months examining Obama’s documentation, released amid much fanfare at a White House news conference one year ago.

At a recent news conference, the investigators declared there is probable cause that Obama’s document is a forgery. Arpaio’s investigation is continuing.

In the Roll Call report, Stearns said, “Some of these people seem to have legitimate concerns. So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable just to see what they have to say.”

A spokesman in Stearns’ office told WND today that he had no further comment on the issue.

Roll Call commented that Stearns, the chairman of the House Energy and commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, appears to be the most senior Republican to raise the issue in recent months.

During the February town hall meeting, he responded to a constituent concerned about Obama’s status as a natural-born citizen, since Obama’s father was Kenyan and it is believed the Founders considered a natural-born citizen the offspring of two U.S. citizens.

When the man suggested impeaching Obama, Stearns told the crowd:

All I can tell you is that the general consensus is that he has produced a birth certificate. The question is, is it legitimate? That’s where we stand now. I’ve seen a copy of it on television of the birth certificate. But, you know, the governor of Hawaii couldn’t get what he felt was an original of the birth certificate. He tried to do it and gave up on it. So I think what Obama’s showing is a facsimile, but I think that debate probably is not enough, shall we say, enough just to impeach him. We’re going to have an election in five or six months, so we can change the course of history by electing someone other than Obama. So that’s what elections are all about. If we started impeachment this time of year it’d be very difficult in terms of time and strength.

A video of Stearns’ comments posted by the left-leaning political blog Think Progress can be seen here:

At that time, the New York Times said Democrats and liberal pundits criticized Stearns’ comments as a desperate effort to win over conservative Republican voters who question Obama’s eligibility.

Stearns “seems to subscribe to the most right-wing discredited conspiracy theories out there,” said Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “What’s next for Cliff Stearns, an investigation into whether the moon landing happened on a sound stage in Los Angeles?”

Likewise, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir suggested it is the responsibility of Republican leaders such as John Boehner and Eric Cantor to “discipline” GOP lawmakers who make such assertions about Obama’s eligibility for office.